John was seven years old when his family moved to Paulding County, in northwest Ohio near the Indiana state line. When he reached adulthood, John married Emma R. Brown of Paulding County on October 21, 1899. Elias F. Patton, a justice of the peace who was a friend and neighbor, performed the ceremony.
Emma, whose name is sometimes recorded as Emily, was the daughter of Emanuel Brown and Anna Obry and had been born on July 22, 1882, in Washington Township of Paulding County. Emma's paternal ancestors had moved from South Carolina to Ohio in the early decades of the nineteenth century and were apparently of Irish Catholic background. Her maternal ancestors were relatively recent immigrants -- French Catholic families who arrived in the United States in the years around 1840.
John and Emma's first child, Floyd, was born in 1901 in Paulding County. In 1902, they moved to Lenawee County, Michigan to join Emma's sister and brother-in-law Clara and Bert McMichael, who had left Paulding County two years before. The Munsells settled in Rollin Township of Lenawee County.
On June 11, 1905, John and Emma purchased a home in the village of Manitou Beach, near the intersection of Chestnut Street and Lakeview Avenue for $225. John worked on the railroad at this time. A little less than three years later, on March 7, 1908, they sold their Manitou Beach home for $300 and purchased one in the village of Prattville in Hillsdale County for $250. Although they sold this house on October 19, 1915, they remained in Prattville until 1922.
John Munsell began a new career on October 1, 1913. He purchased a milk route, along with a wagon and two mules -- Jack and Jenny -- from Gil Van Arsdale. John and several of his sons were involved in the milk hauling business for many years after that time.
In 1922, the family purchased a farm on Lime Lake Road in Wright Township, where the last three of their thirteen children were born. John and Emma lived on this farm for the rest of their lives.
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